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From: Greg Bond <bond@ee.ubc.ca>
Subject: Re: How to print Task_ID type? (GNAT SunOS)
Date: 1996/04/04
Message-ID: <3164895B.5586@ee.ubc.ca>#1/1
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references: <316308F0.6375@ee.ubc.ca> <dewar.828631235@schonberg>
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organization: Dept. of Electrical Eng., UBC
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Date: 1996-04-04T00:00:00+00:00
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Laurent Guerby wrote:
> 
> Greg Bond writes
> : Indeed it is. My oversight. This function does not handle the more
> : general problem I posed though. Is there a general facility for printing
> : access types?
> 

[Loads of good stuff that answers the above question deleted...]

> 
> : The GNAT implementation of the Image function above is a
> : system level (i.e. platform dependent) routine specifically for the
> : Task_ID type. The only Ada references I've got are Barnes for Ada 95 and
> : the ALRM, both of which are woefully inadequate on the topic of Ada I/O.
> 
>    I don't share  your point of view  (both on Barnes  and on the RM95
> ;-).  You can do plenty  of things if  you take the  time to read  the
> Text_IO  description in the RM (83  and 95), and  incredible things if
> you take time to read the Stream section of the RM95 ;-).
> 

I'm sure this is the case for experienced Ada programmers but for those of us learning Ada for 
the first time (myself and my students included), *examples* of I/O help one assimilate the 
concepts much faster than just a dry description from a reference manual (or Barnes' book). I 
don't expect examples in a reference manual, but I do expect them in a text book. Barnes' book, 
while generally good, relegates I/O to only a part of a chapter and includes virtually no 
examples. I/O is one of those fundamental topics that should be covered in detail in any 
language text - especially when the I/O interface is standardized!

--
* Greg Bond                         * Dept. of Electrical Eng.  
* email: bond@ee.ubc.ca             * Univ. of British Columbia      
* voice: (604) 822 0899             * 2356 Main Mall                 
* fax:   (604) 822 5949             * Vancouver, BC              
* web: http://www.ee.ubc.ca/~bond   * Canada, V6T 1Z4